Terry Pratchett Has Begun the Doctor-Assisted Suicide Process in Switzerland

Take this news how you will. Pratchett has been a fervent defender of doctor-assisted suicide in the last year or two, spearheaded, we can assume, by his diagnosis with Alzheimer’s. The Guardian reports that Pratchett received the forms from Dignitas, a clinic in Switzerland:

Pratchett, whose BBC2 film about the subject of assisted suicide is to be shown on BBC2 tomorrow, revealed he had been sent the consent forms requesting a suicide by the clinic and planned to sign them imminently.

“The only thing stopping me [signing them] is that I have made this film and I have a bloody book to finish,” he said during a question-and-answer session following a screening at the Sheffield documentary festival Doc/Fest.

I can’t speak for everyone who has been on this show, but I’m sure we all wish Pratchett the best, whether he goes through the process or not. Let’s hope that no more fantasy icons have to experience the same similar things and that a cure is found (sooner rather than later).